Carat partners with agency guild

[New Delhi] Carat has negotiated an unusual deal in India to handle media planning and buying on behalf of India's New Delhi-based Advertising Agencies Guild, a consortium of independent, local agencies with total media billings of more than $86 million. Aegis Group-owned Carat approached the AAG directly about forming the partnership. Carat is interested in expanding the concept to other markets, but would not identify specific countries. "We're the only global media network not aligned with an agency group, so we're the only one which can do this," said Kim Walker, Carat's chief operating officer, Asia/Pacific in Tokyo. "This idea would work in any market where such an association exists, but they are not very common and getting them to agree takes time."